4 sailors from the South Coast have been appointed to lead teams around the globe in the upcoming Clipper Round the World Yacht Race – including 2 from the Isle of Wight.
35-year-old Josh Strickland and 29-year-old Max Rivers have been selected alongside 28-year-old James Finney from Southampton and 54-year-old Mike Miller from Portsmouth.
Following a gruelling selection process, the sailors join seven other skippers from the UK, South Africa, Uruguay and the Netherlands who will be responsible for forming teams of amateur sailors and safely leading them as they race 40,000 around the globe on the upcoming Clipper 2023-24 Race.
The global yacht race sees adventurers from all walks of life take on the exceptional challenge of racing across the world’s oceans on board a 70ft yacht. Many Race Crew have no prior sailing experience before undertaking the intensive compulsory four-week training programme, and go on to tackle some of the most challenging conditions that Mother Nature can serve up.
James, Josh, Max and Mike are no strangers to the Clipper Race. Mike and Josh were both skippers during the previous edition of the biennial event, and both James and Max were supporting skippers as First Mates and are stepping up to lead a team for the first time.
For Josh Stickland, who first took to the water aged 10, it was with the Prince’s Trust and UKSA’s support that he qualified as a Watersports Instructor, then a professional sailor, and he has never looked back – logging over 150,000 nautical miles during his career to date. On returning for a second consecutive edition, the Clipper Race Skipper is enthusiastic about once again developing novice sailors into ocean racers, and hopefully achieving some solid results in the process.
Josh said:
“I have missed the racing element, and the thrill of forming a competitive race team.
“The vast conditions keep you on your toes – in the South Atlantic we had 86 knot (98mph) wind speed crept up on us in a matter of hours. As the skipper, you need to be as positive as possible – you don’t have to have that in any other sailing role. Your morale makes a real difference every single day.”
Max, who has a wealth of sailing experience and a degree in Adventure Education, has been sailing since the age of 13. He similarly has his eyes set on success. As Clipper Race First Mate, his team – GoToBermuda – managed to secure three podium positions during the last six races of the 2019-20 edition. Going forward as Skipper, this will be something he’ll be looking to exceed when the 2023-24 edition gets underway this summer:
Max said:
“I think setting that culture early on is so important. The culture that we race hard and race well. But also, that we work for each other, and we look after one another.”
